One of the lecturers at the University of Calabar, Professor Bassey Eyo Bassey of the Department of Accounting, has revealed that life was very tough for him during the eight months the Academic Staff Unions of Universities, ASUU, strike lasted.
In an interview with DAILY POST Friday morning, Prof Bassey said, “It was a tough experience to stay without salary for eight months.
“As intellectuals, we devoted the whole of our lives to academic activities, teaching, research, and community development.
“We don’t have investments outside academic work.”
He, therefore, expressed happiness that ASUU has now called off the strike, maintaining that they, the lecturers, have proven a point or two.
“The end of the strike is a welcome development, having proven a point that academics can not be intimated.”
Bassey, however, said that the strike lasted that long because the Federal Government wanted to find a durable solution to the problems of strikes in the universities.
Reacting to the creation of two splinter groups by the Federal Government ostensibly to whittle down the influence of ASUU, Bassey waved it aside, saying they will soon fizzle out because they do not have memberships in many universities in the country.
“The factional unions will not be sustained as they will eventually fizzle out. They have no presence in 90 percent of the universities.”